LRPD names officer involved in shooting

Police on Tuesday identified the officer who shot and killed a man armed with a knife on New Year’s Eve at the Walmart Supercenter in southwest Little Rock.

Separately, the Arkansas State Police said a man was fatally shot by police in southwest Little Rock on New Year’s Day following a pursuit on Interstate 30.

At the Walmart at 8801 Baseline Road, Officer Kreshun King Sr., 30, was working off-duty when he shot Benjamin McDaniel, 30, of Austin at about 8:15 p.m., police said.

King had been attempting to help store security personnel detain McDaniel, who was suspected of theft, when McDaniel began to fight with King, cutting King’s hand with the knife, according to a police news release.

King backed away from McDaniel and drew his pistol, the release stated, yelling commands for McDaniel to drop the knife. McDaniel ignored the commands, authorities said, and advanced on King, who shot McDaniel.

McDaniel died of his wounds at an area hospital. King’s injuries were treated at the same hospital, a police incident report states.

Police are conducting an internal investigation into the shooting, and a separate criminal investigation is also underway, police said in the

news release.

King has been placed on administrative leave, the release says.

Mark Edwards, a spokesman for the Police Department, said Tuesday that King has been with the department since 2017.

In November, he was suspended for 80 hours without pay after a internal investigation into a complaint from a woman who said King contacted her about an incident and then proceeded to expose himself to her.

King did not activate his body camera during the encounter, although the review showed his patrol vehicle had been close to the woman’s address at the time, and he had called her on a personal phone.

A criminal investigation into the matter was dropped because prosecutors thought there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the woman’s claim beyond a reasonable doubt, the investigative file shows.

A supervisor wrote that because of the roughly threemonth delay between the incident and when the complaint was made and King’s failure to activate his body camera, neither King nor the woman would get justice in this incident. That supervisor had recommended King be suspended 160 hours.

King is included on a list of officers with possible misconduct violations maintained by the 6th Judicial District’s prosecuting attorney’s office, which is over Pulaski and Perry counties.

These lists, sometimes referred to as Brady lists, are kept so that the prosecution can follow legal requirements to turn over possible exculpatory evidence to the defense in a criminal case. Frequently, police officers included on these lists have had sustained allegations of dishonesty against them.

However, officials with the 6th Judicial Circuit’s prosecutor’s office have warned that the list they keep does not necessarily mean that a police officer was found to be dishonest. If an officer on the list is subpoenaed in a trial, the prosecutor’s office will contact the agency that employs them to confirm their disciplinary record before submitting them to the court, an official said in an email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

At 2 p.m. Monday, less than 24 hours after McDaniel’s killing, a 35-year-old Hot Springs man was shot by police after a high-speed pursuit from Benton to Little Rock, according to a state police news release.

A state police trooper ended the pursuit, which also involved Benton police, by using a “tactical vehicle intervention,” a technique that involves ramming the suspect’s vehicle, on Interstate 30 near the University Avenue exit, the release says.

The suspect fired on officers, who returned fire, killing the suspect, the release says.

The suspect, who was not identified in the release, was wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service and was driving a vehicle with “fictitious plates,” the release says.

A case file will be forwarded to prosecutors to determine whether the use of deadly force was consistent with Arkansas law, the release says.

McDaniel’s killing was the fifth police shooting by Little Rock officers in 2023. Including McDaniel, three of the suspects fired at by officers died, although Edwards said Tuesday that one death was ruled a suicide.

Little Rock police officers Larry Mears, Jr., and Scott Hampton on Jan. 26 were responding to a call about Elbert Miller, 31, who his girlfriend said was suicidal and armed. While Mears and Hampton were trying to talk with Miller, authorities said, he came out with a gun to his head and the officers fired shots.

Miller’s death was later ruled a suicide, Edwards said.

On Dec. 11, officers Mark Ray and Dakota Faircloth were responding to a report of shots fired at a motel when they located an armed suspect, later identified as Michael Johnson, 38, who refused to drop his gun.

One officer fired his gun, killing Johnson, although police have not said which officer opened fire.

Ray, Faircloth and Officer Lindsey Coffman were involved in another police shooting Feb. 5, returning fire at James Mosby, 49, who started shooting at the three officers who had been dispatched for a wellness check.

Mosby survived his wounds and faces three attempted capital murder charges, authorities said.

On Oct. 11, the department fired Johvoni McClendon, 25, an officer who on Sept. 30 shot Brendon Johnson, 20, in the head while trying to arrest him, wounding Johnson.

McClendon faces felony battery and misdemeanor assault charges in the incident, court records showed. He was fired for violating departmental policy on firing at moving vehicles. Authorities said Johnson, a suspect in a vehicle pursuit, was trying to drive away when McClendon shot him.

Also last year, North Little Rock police officers on Aug. 25 shot and killed Nathaniel Evans, 41, an armed fugitive who barricaded himself into a North Little Rock post office after federal officers tried to arrest him.

Authorities had not publicly identified on Tuesday evening the Hot Springs man killed after reportedly opening fire on officers Monday following the high-speed pursuit from Benton to Little Rock, nor had they identified the state trooper involved in the pursuit or Benton officers who assisted in the incident. It was not clear which officer fatally shot the suspect.